CURSE OF THE OTTAWA! A 200-year tale of revenge. GET A FREE SHORT STORY!

A free short story called Curse of the Ottawa!

Hello, friends!

You are here because you are interested in self-development.

You are interested in YOU!

But you might also be interested in entertainment too…movies, books, novels, and stories.

You might like seeing yourself and other people in stories.

We learn a lot about ourselves from seeing other the way other people live.

If you are, you might like the stories and books I’ll be giving you free!

Here’s what you’ll get immediately!

Curse of the Ottawa

A Frenchman killed an Algonquin Indian about two hundred years ago by drowning him in the Ottawa River over a fraudulent land dispute. A tribal sorceress put a curse on the killer saying one member of his family would die in the river for each of the next ten generations.

He laughed and stole the land.

A curse in the 21st century?
No way.
That’s what I thought too.
I was dead wrong.
I know the curse is true.
My family did die.

It was an ancestor of mine who killed the chief’s son.

CURSE OF THE OTTAWA will come to you immediately.
More to come after that!
What more?

A Storm Coming In (A short story about two men in crisis who meet on a wintry evening.)

A Short Story About Love (See what two girls learned when they asked their father Who Do You Love Best?)

Don’t Forget to Say Your Prayers (A short story about kids who might not do it!)

Murder in Moscow: The Oblast Court Trial (A court case that shocked Russia and the world. This is a novella, a short novel.)

Barricade: Dollard des Ormeaux and the Battle of the Long Sault, a historical adventure novel, Dollard des Ormeaux and the Battle of the Long Sault

It’s The Canadian Alamo) Read this and you won’t ever think Canadian history is dull again!)

…and more

Just sign up here with your best email address and you’ll getCurse of the Ottawa immediately!

Curseof the Ottawa, a free story for you!

Dear friends,

You may be familiar with my work on Self-Knowledge College where I help people know themselves better, or from Dropout to Dean’s List, where I help at-risk students become stronger academically and personally, or from my books on Amazon, or in some other capacity.

In your case, you are a member of The Daley Post.

This will be a change of pace. I hope you like reading and fiction.

This story might entertain you and it’s very short!

Give it a try!

PLEASE JOIN ME ON MY NEW FICTION SITE, NOVEL IDEAS.

I’m offering you a free short story (with more to come) to introduce you to my fiction.

Here’s what you’ll get immediately!

Curse of the Ottawa

A short story.

A Frenchman killed an Algonquin Indian about two hundred years ago by drowning him in the Ottawa River.

A tribal sorceress put a curse on the killer saying one member of his family would die in the river for each of the next ten generations.

Do you believe it?

It was an argument over who owned some land. The white man said it belonged to him and he had a piece of paper that ‘proved’ it.

That was nonsense, of course, a lie, but that’s the way we treated the native people in Canada and the U.S for centuries.

The Algonquin had no written language so they could not read the piece of paper but it didn’t matter; it was a fraud. This kind of thing, in a different way, is still going on.

The chief said the land did not belong to anyone. He said the rocks, trees, rivers, lakes, grass, sky, moon, and stars belonged to no one.

He said the tribe had been there first but that they would share these things.

But he did not accept that the land, or this river, was owned by anyone.

It was an ancestor of mine who killed the chief’s son.

The sorceress’s curse has been carried out.

Would you believe it if several of generations each suffered a death in the river?

Would you believe it if it happened to your family?

Would you believe it if it happened to you?

A curse in the 21st century?

No way.

Call it by another name, then? A hex, jinx, bane, scourge, nemesis?

No? Still too weird an idea to buy?

How about a torment, an affliction, an evil charm, a magic spell?

You don’t believe it.

I don’t blame you.

That’s what I thought too.

I was wrong.

Dead wrong.

The curse of the Ottawa could happen to you.

It doesn’t have to be the Ottawa River.

It does not even have to be a river.

Family members could still die.

I know the curse is true.

My family did die.

It could happen to your family too.

That story will come to you immediately.

More to come after that!

What more?

A Storm Coming In: A story about two men in crisis who meet on a wintry evening.

BATTLE OF THE LONG SAULT

I’m beginning a new series of posts today based on my historical novel, The Battle of the Long Sault.

It is the story of Dollard des Ormeaux and his attack on the Iroquois on the Ottawa River in 1660, in an attempt to defend Montreal.

It’s summertime and we all need a break so here’s a break from what I usually write about here.

This doesn’t have much to do with self except insofar as I expect you’d learn lot about yourself in battle!

And the four diffent “peoples” involved in this Canadian, factually-based, adventure story, all have their identities tied up in the outcome of what are called the French-Indian Wars.

So from that point of view, they are all about selfhood. The French newcomers, their allies, the Huron and Algonquin and their enemy, the Iroquois, all have their lives invested in the outcome of the wars.

More about that later.

Today I’d like to introduce you to The Battle of the Long Sault. I’ll be sending chapters as they are completed along with my usual posts.

If you are a fiction reader, especially of historical fiction I think you’ll like it. Especially if you are a fan of 17th century material and even more if it’s Canadian! (OK, there ain’t much of that around! But that’s maybe a good reason to check it out, yes?)

Here’s the synopsis.

BATTLE OF THE LONG SAULT

In 1660, the Iroquois incessantly threaten New France by ambushing Huron and Algonquin hunting parties on the Ottawa River, killing the defenseless hunters as they negotiate the rapids, and stealing furs destined for Montreal.

In four years, only nine canoes of furs has reached the fort. The town, almost abandoned by France, is in danger of destruction.

Dollard des Ormeaux

In THE BATTLE OF THE LONG SAULT, a young, ambitious Montreal garrison commander, Dollard des Ormeaux, deplores the French strategy of never combating the Iroquois in the forest because of earlier disastrous encounters.

He wants to ambush the Iroquois, simultaneously ensuring safe conduct on the river, gaining Montreal income, and announcing a new war policy to the enemy.

Dollard and sixty French, Huron and Algonquin allies go up the Ottawa River, station themselves at the Long Sault rapids, and prepare to lie in wait. However, before they can do anything, two Iroquois war canoes come cresting over the rapids.

First Ambush

Their initial ambush of the war canoes at the Long Sault (rapiuds) s crushingly successful but one Iroquois brave escapes and minutes later 200 Iroquois charge over the rapids in big war canoes.

The opponents reinforce meager forts on the riverbank. A stand-off has the Iroquois taking the brunt of the losses but they send for help. Six hundred tribesmen have been mustering to join this group for a massive attack designed to wipe out Montreal and Quebec.

The French know nothing of it. The reinforcements arrive. The French and their allies are now in a battle maelstrom.

Hunger, thirst and fatigue take their toll; desperate Hurons defect. The Iroquois reinforcements overwhelm. The odds increase to 20-1.

Dollard is out of food, nearly out of ammunition, and can’t get to the river water. The Huron chief advises Dollard to negotiate a settlement,– a traditional move in these circumstances–but some Frenchmen, fearful and suspicious, shoot Iroquois emissaries during the peace talks.

The battle gets worse.

THE BATTLE OF THE LONG SAULT is a frontier adventure story, an “Eastern” western if you like. It is a picture of the clash of economies, cultures, and peoples in the New World.

The French want to extend their territory, convert the natives and grow economically; the Iroquois fight desperately to regain a life that it being stripped from them; the Huron, remembering from the disaster of Huronia, where most of their people were killed, fight for their very existence.

As in Rashomon, all points of view—those of the Iroquois, the French, and the Huron and Algonquin — are presented.

Think of the recent film blockbuster, 300, The Battle of Thermopylae, or The Alamo as a descriptor of the basic storyline: a small band of men engaged in battle with an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. The Battle of the Long Sault is similar but an event in Canadian history that c ertainly changed the of the development of Montreal and might have changed history itself.